http://groups.google.com/group/gmail-labs-suggest-a-labs-feature/browse_thread/thread/6a665783cd040dc6 (Please Bring Back the Search the Web Button!)

File a suggestion with Google to bring back the "Search the Web" option via this link:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=suggestions.cs (Suggestions > I have another idea > Other > Bring Back the "Search the Web" option!)

Also worthy of note is fellow Gmail user and expert commentator on emerging technologies, Steve Rubel, who wrote a thorough and excellent essay, "Making Gmail Your Gateway to the Web."

In it, he articulates beautifully what many Gmailers have tried to express about the value we gain from the "Search the Web" option and how it transforms (errr...make that "transformed" for the moment) Gmail -- WITH the "Search the Web" option -- into a powerhouse tool for running and organizing his business and communications.

If you are an employee of Google reading this thread, among the doubters about "Search the Web" and its usefulness, or among its ardent supporters, you will find Rubel's vivid demonstration enlightening:

Wonderful news: The Button is back! The Button works! hOSANNA! gLORIA IN eXCELSIS Deo! God bless the Good Ship Google and all who sail in her.

In an unusual reversal and almost one month to the day since they removed it, Google has restored the Search the Web option to Gmail.

Never let it be said that a respectful, organized, persistent, intelligent protest by subscribers won't make a difference. (It did at Facebook and now, at Google.)

Thank you, G-folk, for hearing us out and considering our comments and our needs. Likewise, thanks to the thousands of Gmail subscribers in the Google groups and forums who spoke up, wrote out, and bumped, bumped, bumped ;-)

Big thanks, too, go to Scott Wilson (Google Gone Bonkers), Steve Rubel (Making Gmail Your Gateway to the Web), CNET, GetSatisfaction.com, SearchEngineWatch, and among the host of bloggers across the web who helped get the word out, PLA Tech Notes.